


whispers in the rain

by Areiton



Series: Find Me In the World [6]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Falling In Love, Introspection, M/M, Rain, Stiles-centric, Waiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-23
Updated: 2018-01-23
Packaged: 2019-03-08 16:02:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13461660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Areiton/pseuds/Areiton
Summary: “I dream about it, sometimes. Not the nights we almost died, but the good times."





	whispers in the rain

He listens to the rain. 

His mother told him, once, when he was a little boy and curled in her lap with a cup of cocoa and the unshakable belief that nothing in life would ever go wrong--she told him that there were secrets, in the rain. Waiting to be found, if he was very quiet and listened. 

Stiles had never been good at being quiet, and even less good at waiting. 

But in the weeks and months after he left his note with Davis, he thinks it’s easier. 

He catches sight of himself, smiling in a mirror, and he rubs his lips because that is such a strange expression to see on his face now. 

He’s happy, here, he is. Happier than he thought he’d ever be. 

This is different. A deeper, more settled peace that makes it easy to smile, that makes the nightmares push back for long deep nights of sleep, and afternoons in Derek’s chair, listening to the rain. 

The thing is--he has no idea what Derek will do. If he’ll ignore the note, or if he’ll hunt Stiles down and demand he stay out of his life. 

He doesn’t know if he’ll even  _ see _ Derek, or if all he’ll have is a few puzzles and this ridiculously comfortable chair. 

And he’s ok with that. 

He’s happy. 

His dad watches him, and says, “Do you ever wish you’d done it different?” 

“I think about it.” 

How could he not? He left a war, ran like hell the first chance he got, and never looked back. There were casualties to that kind of thing. 

“And?” 

“And we do the best we can. I’d be dead if we hadn’t left, and you probably would be too,” he pauses, breathes through that idea, the knowledge that his father would have died there. 

“I miss it, sometimes,” he confesses and John nods. 

Stiles was an adrenaline junkie and insatiably curious, and desperate to be needed. It’s what kept him together, when his mother died and John needed him. 

It’s what kept him functioning when they left Beacon Hills and he was reeling. 

“I dream about it, sometimes. Not the nights we almost died, but the good times. The summer I spent with Derek and Isaac, looking for Erica and Boyd. Practicing with Scott. The weekend research binges with Lydia.”

“Not all of it was bad,” John admits, and Stiles wipes at his eyes and nods. “Do you think if you and Derek reconnect, you’ll be drawn back into it all?” 

And that’s the question, isn’t it? Even if Derek comes to find him, even if they reconnect personally and not through some gorgeous pieces of wood--what did that mean?

Is that even what he wanted? 

Derek had been gone from his life for so long, and even when he was absent, he was there, a hollowed out space that he’d never been able to fill and eventually quit trying. It was like Scott--impossible to replicate, impossible to replace. 

But Scott was gone, and Stiles had left him first. Derek was gone, by his own choice, and even if they had a chance to change that now--did he want to? 

Did he want to step back into the inbetween world where monsters were real and death was a constant threat? 

Was that even the life Derek led? 

“I don’t know.” 

“Well,” John says, sighing as he stands and claps Stiles on the shoulder. “You don’t have to decide yet.” 

He leaned back into his chair, and held his cocoa under his nose and listened to the rain, a quiet whisper that seemed to repeat. 

_ Soon. Soon. Soon.  _

He closed his eyes and smiled and waited, still and quiet and patient. 


End file.
